Vanilla Bicycles Monson

If you’re a little jaded after watching the world’s most advanced carbon fiber race machines careen over the highest mountains in France for the last three weeks during the 2011 Tour de France, Sacha White and his team at Vanilla Bicycles have the perfect remedy. Their lugged road bikes combine the ultimate in modern road-going components with the graceful classicism of a well-made steel frame.

While this creation reveals eye-catching details from every angle, like flawless metal flake paint and hand-pinstriping by Coat, it’s no show pony. It’s kitted out with a Campagnolo 11-speed Record group set and the DT hubs and HOPE skewers have been de-anodised and painted with matching stripes. A lot of Vanilla bikes bear matching hubs, Sacha says it’s an ideal way of bringing a bike’s paint scheme together into a cohesive whole. It’s those details that have earned Vanilla Bicycles their reputation. That’s important because, after today’s modern carbon fiber rigs have frayed and been shelved due to deterioration, these steel frames will be tomorrow’s highly sought after and still desirable classics.